At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
1) Balance a lego-ical equation
2) Apply their knowledge of balancing lego-ical equations to balancing chemical equations
3) Identify why the mole is an important concept in balancing chemical equations
Materials Needed
*As many lego's as I can get my hands on (multiple colors will be necessary)
*Chemical model kits
*Teacher made chemical equation balancing worksheet
There will be two daily agenda's for this lesson. This is where the largest difference will occur between the two lessons. The daily agenda for the first day will not include to many learning goals because there is not much that they need to actually learn. The first day is more for the experience. The daily agenda for the second day will be similar to the one from the first day, but it will include more/higher learning goals because the things from the second day are what they''re really supposed to walk away with.
Do Now (Day 1): This do now will just involve some practice problems involving the previous day's lesson.
How many moles are in 3.25 grams of water?
=0.181 moles
How many atoms are there in 12.2 moles of sugar?
=73.4 e23 atoms
How many grams are in 7.23 moles of Sodium Hydroxide?
=289.2 grams
Day 1
45 minutes - For the entirety of the lesson I will not once use the word combination "chemical equations". In fact, I am going to try my hardest to pretend that I have no idea what chemistry even is or that I have ever even heard the word "chemistry" before. The entire class we will be learning to balance "lego-ical equations". Instead of carbon atoms it will be "blacks" and instead of oxygen atoms it will be "reds" etc. I will teach them about the rules of co-efficients ( # of moles) and subscripts with some lego-ical equations up on the board and several lego-ical models that will be setup in the front of the room. The hook will hopefully be that we are using legos in class all day and not talking about chemistry.
45 minutes - After teaching the kids about balancing lego-ical equations they will break up into groups. There will be 5 or 6 (depending on class size) stations setup around the room. Each station will have a written lego-ical equation which they need to eventually balance. When they arrive at the station there will be lego-cules setup which will represent the left hand side of the equation (reactants). Their goal is to use the written lego-ical equation to break down the reactant lego-cules and form the product lego-cules. They can then use this information to successfully balance the lego-ical equation.
Do Now (Day 2): This Do Now will be a little different. I will attempt to spark discussion about the "lego-cules" and why we may have done something like that. What does this have to do with chemistry at all? I will eventually tell them that it was an analogy for this day's lesson, which is the actual lesson.
Day 2
Day 2 is going to be as identical as possible to day 1. The only difference is that they will be learning to balance chemical equations, not lego-ical equations and be using chemical model building kits instead of legos. I want every single student in that room to be getting deja vouz and to tell me we did the same exact thing yesterday. When they say that, I will tell them that is the point. I really just want them to realize that it was the same thing as they were doing yesterday. The equations that they will need to balance at each station will be analogous to ones that they did yesterday. Every single aspect of the day will be identical to the previous day. The colors of the previous days legos will correspond with the colors of the corresponding atoms in the chemical building kit. The equations will also correspond with the previous day's equations. At the end of this day they will receive a worksheet with chemical balancing problems that they will need to do for homework. I will use this to assess how well the students learned the concept. The students should be able to use the subscripts to determine what the stoichiometrical co-efficients of the equation should be.
Title:
Balancing Lego-ical EquationsGrade Level:
11Course:
General Chemistry 1Learning Performances
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:1) Balance a lego-ical equation
2) Apply their knowledge of balancing lego-ical equations to balancing chemical equations
3) Identify why the mole is an important concept in balancing chemical equations
Materials Needed
*As many lego's as I can get my hands on (multiple colors will be necessary)*Chemical model kits
*Teacher made chemical equation balancing worksheet
Time Required
~180 minutesInstructional Sequence
There will be two daily agenda's for this lesson. This is where the largest difference will occur between the two lessons. The daily agenda for the first day will not include to many learning goals because there is not much that they need to actually learn. The first day is more for the experience. The daily agenda for the second day will be similar to the one from the first day, but it will include more/higher learning goals because the things from the second day are what they''re really supposed to walk away with.Do Now (Day 1): This do now will just involve some practice problems involving the previous day's lesson.
How many moles are in 3.25 grams of water?
=0.181 moles
How many atoms are there in 12.2 moles of sugar?
=73.4 e23 atoms
How many grams are in 7.23 moles of Sodium Hydroxide?
=289.2 grams
Day 1
45 minutes - For the entirety of the lesson I will not once use the word combination "chemical equations". In fact, I am going to try my hardest to pretend that I have no idea what chemistry even is or that I have ever even heard the word "chemistry" before. The entire class we will be learning to balance "lego-ical equations". Instead of carbon atoms it will be "blacks" and instead of oxygen atoms it will be "reds" etc. I will teach them about the rules of co-efficients ( # of moles) and subscripts with some lego-ical equations up on the board and several lego-ical models that will be setup in the front of the room. The hook will hopefully be that we are using legos in class all day and not talking about chemistry.
45 minutes - After teaching the kids about balancing lego-ical equations they will break up into groups. There will be 5 or 6 (depending on class size) stations setup around the room. Each station will have a written lego-ical equation which they need to eventually balance. When they arrive at the station there will be lego-cules setup which will represent the left hand side of the equation (reactants). Their goal is to use the written lego-ical equation to break down the reactant lego-cules and form the product lego-cules. They can then use this information to successfully balance the lego-ical equation.
Do Now (Day 2): This Do Now will be a little different. I will attempt to spark discussion about the "lego-cules" and why we may have done something like that. What does this have to do with chemistry at all? I will eventually tell them that it was an analogy for this day's lesson, which is the actual lesson.
Day 2
Day 2 is going to be as identical as possible to day 1. The only difference is that they will be learning to balance chemical equations, not lego-ical equations and be using chemical model building kits instead of legos. I want every single student in that room to be getting deja vouz and to tell me we did the same exact thing yesterday. When they say that, I will tell them that is the point. I really just want them to realize that it was the same thing as they were doing yesterday. The equations that they will need to balance at each station will be analogous to ones that they did yesterday. Every single aspect of the day will be identical to the previous day. The colors of the previous days legos will correspond with the colors of the corresponding atoms in the chemical building kit. The equations will also correspond with the previous day's equations. At the end of this day they will receive a worksheet with chemical balancing problems that they will need to do for homework. I will use this to assess how well the students learned the concept. The students should be able to use the subscripts to determine what the stoichiometrical co-efficients of the equation should be.